How will the care sector recruit sufficient number of staffs

[Pepe n Pilar]

IMMIGRATION MATTERS


As East European workers leave UK in droves what
effect will the exodus have on the Care Sector?

By Charles Kelly

29 August 2009


As Eastern European workers return home in droves, how will the care sector recruit sufficient numbers of staff to fill their vacancies for care workers, which are already on the Government’s official Shortage Occupations list?

Immigration figures released by the Home Office this week show that last year the total number of 'A8' citizens coming to Britain from the former Eastern Bloc states dropped by more than a quarter from 109,000 to 79,000.

But the numbers heading back to their homelands more than doubled, from 25,000 to 66,000.

In order to recruit staff from outside the UK employers must register as Sponsors under Tier 2 of the Points based system.

But a Tier 2 Certificate of Sponsorship from an employer does not guarantee you a working visa, and getting through the process is not as simple as it first appears.

The high £7.80 minimum salary level imposed by the UK Border Agency is another bar to employing non EU workers.

Evelie Padadac of Immigration Adviser’s Bison UK said:

“I have already been advising clients about this shortage occupation list for Care Assistants, but the difficulty is that most employers are not willing or able to pay £7.80 per hour”.

The introduction of the points-based system has already seen a reduction in the number of skilled workers from outside Europe coming to Britain from 69,000 through the old work permit route in 2008 to an estimated 50,000 this year.

Whilst immigration is still a political ‘hot potato’, the Government must not forget that independent care homes still depend heavily on Filipino, Indian and African workers, many on student visas, to look after their vulnerable residents.
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[somebody]

So far locally i have noticed British workers (of all different skin colours now trudging to the two large care centres near us) in the mornings and evenings for there shifts.

As unemployment goes though the roof i think many more will be drawn to the industy out of sheer necessity.

Same is happening at the airport hotels near us, Im starting to hear British voices in the workers going to and from them un heard of even a year ago...

[joebloggs]

201. The Migration Advisory Committee reviewed the occupations of care assistants and
home carers for its April 2009 UK shortage occupation list, on the request of the
Government. It concluded:
We believe that more could be done to attract workers from within the UK and the
wider EEA. We accept, however, that much of the problem is down to low pay, and
employers are often unable to pay more because of constraints imposed by local
authority funding…In the short term we accept that it would be sensible to fill some
of this shortage using non-EEA immigrant labour.246
The MAC therefore retained the occupation of Senior Care Worker on its April 2009 UK
shortage occupation list, but reduced the salary requirement to £7.80 per hour, and the
qualification requirement to ‘a relevant NQF [National Qualification Framework] level 2+
or equivalent qualification’, plus at least two years’ relevant experience, plus supervisory
responsibility in the role to which they are being recruited.247 With respect to these new
criteria, it noted that:
One-fifth of workers in the occupation [senior care worker] in the Labour Force
Survey earn £7.80 per hour, have an NQF level 2+ qualification and have two years’
or more experience.

The evidence we received suggests to us that there is a sustained and chronic
shortage of care workers within the UK and EEA. This conclusion is supported by
JobCentre Plus data showing that the vacancy-to-unemployment ratio for the period
February 2008 to January 2009 stands at 1.88, compared with 0.38 for all occupations,
and the conclusions of the Migration Advisory Committee. It is also clear that much of
the sector has long depended on certain immigrant communities—such as the Filipino
community—to fill many of these posts

cannot afford to pay £7.80 hr yet they charge £460+ a week in residential homes near me


and for nurses ,,

The Migration Advisory Committee came to a similar conclusion in its April 2009 UK
shortage occupation list, stating that “overall, recruitment to the nursing profession
remains buoyant and vacancy rates have decreased significantly since 2003. There is not
strong evidence to support nurses going on the shortage list for the UK”.252 It therefore
included only two nursing specialties—theatre nurse and critical care nurse—on the list.253


so only theatre and critical care nurses made the shortage list.

http://www.publications.parliament.u...f/217/217i.pdf